t first purely symbolical, meaningless to any but a
Christian eye, such as the Vine, the Good Shepherd, the Sheep, the
Fisherman, the Fish, &c. Even the personages of ancient mythology were
pressed into the service of early Christian art, and Orpheus, taming the
wild beasts with his lyre, symbolized the peaceful sway of Christ; and
Ulysses, deaf to the Siren's song, represented the Believer triumphing
over the allurements of sensual pleasure. The person of Christ appeared
but rarely, and then commonly simply as the chief personage in an
historical picture. The events depicted from the life of Christ are but
few, and always conform rigidly to the same traditional type. The most
frequent are the miracle at Cana, the multiplication of the loaves and
fishes, the paralytic carrying his bed, the healing of the woman with
the issue of blood, the raising of Lazarus, Zacchaeus, and the triumphal
entry into Jerusalem. The Crucifixion, and subjects from the Passion,
are never represented. The cycle of Old Testament subjects is equally
limited. The most common are the history of Jonah as a type of the
Resurrection, the Fall, Noah receiving the dove with the olive branch,
Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Moses taking off his shoes, David with the
sling, Daniel in the lions' den, and the Three Children in the fiery
furnace. The mode of representation is always conventional, the
treatment of the subject no less than its choice being dictated by an
authority to which the artist was compelled to bow. All the more
valuable of these paintings have been produced in J.H. Parker's series
of photographs taken in the catacombs by the magnesium light.[6]
Wilpert's great work, in which these frescoes are reproduced in colours,
now enables the student even better to distinguish the styles of
different centuries and follow the course of artistic development or
decay.

[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Fresco Ceiling. (From Bosio.)

The subjects, beginning at the top and going to the right, are--

(1) The paralytic carrying his bed.
(2) The seven baskets full of fragments.
(3) Raising of Lazarus.
(4) Daniel in the lions' den.
(5) Jonah swallowed by the fish.
(6) Jonah vomited forth.
(7) Moses striking the rock.
(8) Noah and the dove.
In the centre, the Good Shepherd.]

Catacombs of Naples.

Beyond Rome and its suburbs the most remarkable Christian catacombs are
those in the vicinity of Naples, described by Pelliccia (_De Ch